Posts Tagged ‘collaboration’

In the traditional academic workplace, compensation is set from top. That way resources get distributed fairly and institutional priorities can take precedence.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting about a new model for bonuses in which colleagues reward each other. As practiced at a coffee shop in San Francisco, employees receive a certain amount of shares that they can distribute to their coworkers, in essence voting for how much they value each other’s contributions.

This model requires leadership to cede some control but can also bring to their attention the work of some less visible employees. If academic medicine is going to take the concept of collaboration seriously, peer bonuses are one way to recognize excellence in that area.

Of course, tying teamwork to compensation is not the only way to do that. Praise comes in many forms.

At the Group on Faculty Affairs conference next month, one of my fellow panelists will be describing her office’s experiment with Facebook. It seems just as higher education has become comfortable with one social media outlet, another pops up. After Facebook came Twitter. Then it’s LinkedIn and Google Plus and Tumblr.

The proliferation of networking sites can overwhelm you. Once you’ve built up a following on one site, you’re loathe to switch to another platform and start from scratch.

One site that I am experimenting with is Academia.edu. This social networking site will look familiar to Facebook users, but instead of celebrating birthdays and parties, the profile highlights intellectual work. A scholar can upload publications and research interests. He or she can join interest groups and follow the work of colleagues. It also tells you when another user has read your materials, creating possible collaborations.

There’s not as much activity on Academia.edu as there is on Facebook. New publications don’t come out as frequently as status updates. At least there’s no chance of being caught in an embarrassing photo on Academia.edu, and it does offer a chance to promote your work.

Inspired by a graphic representation of friendship networks on Facebook, Olivier Beauchesne decided to create a similar map of scientific collaboration. Because he works for a bibliometric analysis company, he had access to a large database of research article citations.

For every publication jointly authored by researchers in different cities, he drew a connection. So, if a faculty member at BU published with a faculty member at the Sorbonne, a line would connect Boston and Paris. To see the complete picture, click here.

Even without an overlay of a geopolitical map, it’s clear both how much collaboration takes place and between which countries.